Xiaoyao Town Spicy Pepper Soup is one of the famous Chinese-flavored delicacies. It is based on the Shaolin Temple's "Sobering Soup" and Wudang Mountain's "Digestive Tea," creating a soup that excels in color, aroma, and taste. This soup not only reduces the bitterness of the tea but also removes the spiciness of the soup, and it can sober up, refresh, stimulate appetite, and strengthen the spleen.
Xiaoyao Town Spicy Pepper Soup
Chinese Name: Spicy Pepper Soup
Main Ingredients: Diced meat, dried bean curd, kelp, vermicelli
Category: Henan cuisine, main food
Flavor: Sour and spicy
Dish Introduction
Xiaoyao Town Spicy Pepper Soup is a Henan specialty snack.
Story One
The origin of Spicy Pepper Soup can be traced back to the late Northern Song Dynasty. At that time, Emperor Huizong of Song had a fondness for romance and leisure and had little aptitude for military or state affairs. However, he was proficient in music, chess, calligraphy, painting, food, drink, entertainment, and more. As the saying goes, what the superior desires is often intensified below, so a trend of extravagance and indulgence spread from the top down, reaching all corners of the country, especially in Bianjing. Zhang Zeduan's "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" depicted the prosperity of the last few decades before the fall of the Song dynasty, showing various types of foods with diverse flavors, which have evolved and been passed down to this day, eventually becoming the famous Kaifeng snacks. Therefore, speaking about origins, Spicy Pepper Soup has an inseparable connection with the Dongjing Bianliang city!
At that time, there was a young eunuch in the palace who had been castrated from childhood. Because he was good at understanding the emperor's intentions and responding appropriately, he was highly favored by Emperor Huizong and became the emperor's personal attendant at the age of sixteen or seventeen. Emperor Huizong loved the young eunuch dearly and allowed him to leave the palace to travel and visit his family. The young eunuch was from the Nanyang area. After leaving the palace, he headed west, and his first stop was the Shaolin Temple on Mount Song. As a prominent figure close to the emperor, the abbot of the temple warmly received him and took excellent care of him. When the abbot saw that the young eunuch was flushed, thirsty, and eating very little, he served him a bowl of Shaolin Temple's "Sobering Soup." After drinking it, the young eunuch felt refreshed and all discomfort seemed to fade. He was very pleased, drinking it for several days, and before leaving, he asked the abbot for the recipe of the "Sobering Soup," which the abbot generously gave him.
After visiting his family, the young eunuch continued south and then traveled to Mount Wudang. The head of Wudang Mountain noticed that the young eunuch had a large appetite, frequent urination, foul-smelling stools, and a thin body. He prepared Wudang Mountain's "Digestive Tea" for him. After drinking it for several days, the young eunuch's stools became normal, his body filled out, and he noticed a fairer complexion in the copper mirror. The young eunuch was very grateful and obtained the recipe as well.Seeing that these two formulas were quite effective, the little eunuch, after returning to the palace, began thinking of presenting them to Emperor Huizong to win the emperor's favor. He gathered eunuchs from the Imperial Kitchen and scholars from the Imperial Medical Institute and, based on these two formulas, created a soup that excelled in color, aroma, taste, and appearance. This soup not only reduced the bitterness of tea but also removed the spiciness of the soup, while also helping to sober up, invigorate, stimulate the appetite, and strengthen the spleen. He served it to the imperial concubines, who all praised it; when presented to Emperor Huizong, this indulgent emperor was even more spirited and couldn't contain his joy.
Emperor Huizong asked the little eunuch what kind of soup it was, and on the spur of the moment, the eunuch called it “Longevity and Health Soup.” The emperor was overjoyed, granted the eunuch the imperial surname (Zhao), and officially named the soup “Zhao Family Longevity and Health Soup.” It is said that this soup could keep one warm in winter and cool in summer. Emperor Huizong once ordered it to be issued to the military camps; after the soldiers drank it, they were protected from all illnesses, and no diseases arose. Its reputation spread rapidly and it became a valuable recipe in the army.
Later, during the Jingkang calamity, the Jurchen troops broke into Kaifeng, capturing Emperor Huizong and Emperor Qinzong. Amid the chaos, the little eunuch escaped from imprisonment and fled south with other refugees. Having lived long within the palace, he was physically weak, and compounded by the suffering of prison and the catastrophe of a fallen country, along with the cold winds along the journey and fear in his heart, he soon fell seriously ill. When he reached the dock of Xiaoyao Town, it was already late in the day. He could no longer sustain himself and collapsed in front of a tea stove at the dock. The next morning, an old tea vendor, Wang, saw a person lying by the stove and quickly dragged him inside to treat him. After a meal of hot soup and food, the little eunuch's condition improved significantly. Wang took him in and married his daughter to the little eunuch. To make a living, the little eunuch turned the tea stall into a breakfast stall. He modified the “Longevity and Health Soup” (where palace dwellers preferred nourishing soups, while common folk needed porridge) and sold it to merchants passing through. Later, the eunuch removed the medicinal ingredients from the soup, added roasted black sesame seeds, peanuts, and similar ingredients, creating a sweet soup, which later became the locally popular oiled tea of Xiaoyao.
One day, a northern merchant brought a bottle of pepper to eat with the eunuch's large meat porridge. Old Wang accidentally knocked over the bottle of pepper beside the porridge bucket, and the little eunuch, by chance, mixed the spilled pepper into the pot. After the guest ate it, he felt completely invigorated and comfortable throughout his body. In this way, spicy pepper soup was born through an accidental 'collision.'A Northern merchant once asked the young eunuch what kind of soup this was (it should have been some kind of porridge). The young eunuch, enticed by the aroma of the soup, scooped some out and tasted it. The spiciness was rich and mellow, combining the heat of dried ginger and galangal, the spiciness of pepper and Chinese prickly ash, as well as the pungency of cinnamon and sand ginger. The mixture of different spicy flavors fully stimulated the taste buds and felt exceptionally unique. Therefore, the young eunuch called it 'Hu La Tang' (Spicy Pepper Soup). The term 'Hu La Tang' does not mean that the soup contains both pepper and chili. In authentic Hu La Tang, only pepper is used, not chili. The meaning of Hu La Tang is 'randomly spicy'—a combination of various spicy flavors. Any other interpretations are either far-fetched or literal misreadings. After years of development among the common people, a kind of Hu La Tang, suitable for Northern tastes, rich in spiciness with an enticing aroma, was born in Xiaoyao Town. Hu La Tang not only has bright color and delicious taste but also has medicinal value for disease prevention and health benefits. Moreover, it is cost-effective, making it accessible to people of all social statuses, which is why it became widely popular among consumers.
Anecdote 2: At that time, Grand Secretary Yan Song, in order to please the emperor, obtained a life-prolonging seasoning medicine from a Taoist and offered it to the emperor to make soup. The soup was extremely delicious, greatly pleasing the emperor, who named it 'Imperial Soup.' After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, Imperial Chef Zhao Ji fled to Xiaoyao Town (present-day Xiaoyao Town, Xihua County, Zhoukou City) with this medicinal recipe. Greeted warmly by the Hu family of Xiaoyao, he passed on the recipe to them. As a result, the soup became aromatic and spicy, managed by the Hu family, and was gradually called 'Xiaoyao Town Hu La Tang' by the locals.
Current Development: Today, the operation of Xiaoyao Town Hu La Tang is divided into two models: store and stall operations, and industrial enterprise production. Store and stall operations are similar to traditional methods. In addition to preparing the herbs and ingredients themselves for making the soup, there now exists a model where operators purchase ready-made raw materials in bulk from manufacturers and then cook the soup, meaning the operators themselves do not prepare the Hu La Tang herbs—they rely on purchased pure Hu La Tang materials. The latter benefits the manufacturers of pure Hu La Tang materials. The second model is the industrial production of Hu La Tang seasoning, where enterprises set up factories to produce Hu La Tang seasonings on an industrial scale. This allows households and other operators to easily make Hu La Tang at home, enabling common people to truly 'enjoy authentic Xiaoyao Town Hu La Tang without leaving their homes.'Methods
Method 1
Ingredients Preparation: 300g flour, 50g cilantro, 50g spinach, 50g vermicelli, 50g kelp strips, a little chopped green onion and ginger, 5g salt, 10g pepper, 5g soy sauce, and 5g vinegar.
Steps:
1. Mix the salt into the flour, add a little water and knead into a dough. Then gradually add water while kneading until a sticky and elastic gluten and gluten water are formed.
2. Boil water in a pot and add the gluten. Once the gluten is cooked, pour the gluten water into the pot, boil until the soup thickens, then add cilantro, spinach, vermicelli, kelp strips, chopped green onion and ginger, salt, and pepper, and boil over high heat. It is now ready.
Method 2
Ingredients Preparation:
Main ingredients: diced beef, peanut bean curd strips (cut into thin slices), kelp.
Xiaoyao Town Spicy Soup
Supplementary ingredients: dried daylily (soaked and cut into sections), vermicelli.
Seasonings: pepper powder, ground ginger, Chinese five-spice powder, salt, starch, MSG or chicken essence, sesame oil.
Steps:
1. Boil water in a pot and cook the diced beef. Add the peanuts (note: the red color of the spicy soup comes from the red skins of the peanuts; in street versions, when you can barely see a few peanuts, think about where the color comes from).
2. Cook until the peanuts are plump. If you want crunchier peanuts, you can now add kelp strips, bean curd strips, and daylily sections. Boil for another ten minutes, then add the vermicelli (if you want softer peanuts, add kelp, bean curd strips, and daylily later).
3. Before serving, add the supplementary seasonings: pepper powder, ground ginger, Chinese five-spice, salt, and starch, and mix well. Finally, add some MSG or chicken essence. Add some sesame oil when eating. The flavor is excellent, spicy, salty, and fragrant with a lingering aftertaste (some supermarkets sell ready-made spicy soup seasoning, convenient; if you want it spicier, add more pepper powder and ground ginger).
Instant Method:
Currently, several food companies have developed instant spicy soup seasoning, similar to instant noodles. Just add the seasoning to boiling water to make a fairly tasty spicy soup.
Dish Features:
Smell: Smell the soup first to check for a strong meaty aroma. The base of spicy soup is mostly made from beef broth, and Xiaoyao Town Spicy Soup sometimes uses pork.
Look: Check the ratio of gluten, tofu skin, and other ingredients in the bowl, whether the soup consistency is appropriate, and if the chili oil color is correct.
Taste: Finished spicy soup with a little vinegar and unrefined sesame oil can be directly eaten with youtiao, fried cakes, fried buns, or meat buns for breakfast. Extra chili can be added for those who like it spicy.For people who can't eat very spicy food, you can choose the "two-mixed" eating method, which involves mixing Hu La Tang and tofu pudding together and stirring evenly. Hu La Tang with added tofu pudding has a unique flavor. Taste: How long the meaty aroma and the numbing spiciness of the pepper remain in your mouth after eating (preferably more than ten minutes). \ First published by Gossip News Agency
